Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Sally Hansen Mega Shine AKA Worst Topcoat Ever

A few months ago I was on the hunt for a new topcoat and decided to give Sally Hansen Mega Shine a try since I'd heard really great things about. All the reviews I saw claimed that this topcoat was like Seche Vite but even better because, as I'm sure most of you know, Seche Vite has the little disclaimer that it may cause birth defects (news flash, a lot of nail polish brands include the exact same ingredient - you're probably already using it). Even though I loved Seche Vite and I could care less about the disclaimer because I'm not pregnant, nor am I planning on being pregnant any time soon, I hated that it turned rock hard only halfway through the bottle so I thought this would be a great topcoat to try since it's supposed to be even better.

WRONG!

This topcoat is actually HORRIBLE. It does dry very quickly and it evens hardens almost as fast as Seche Vite, but this comes at a price. Mega Shine ruins my manicure every time I try to use it. I'm not sure what's happening exactly but it looks like it shrinks at it dries and at the same time it shrinks the existing nail polish. Here's the result.

As you can see it pulls the nail polish from every direction creating immediate tip wear as well as little stretch (? I'm not sure what to call them) marks. I think this issue can be minimized if you apply it after your nails are completely dry but this doesn't make any sense to me because right on the directions it says "apply 1 - 2 coats over wet or dry nail enamel." Oh, and did I mention that this topcoat makes my nail polish peel off within a day or two? Needless to say I'm very unimpressed by this topcoat and I would never recommend it to anyone and I will never repurchase it. It's possibly the worst cosmetic item I've ever tried and yes I'm probably being a bit dramatic but I have a hard time thinking of another product that is just all around this bad and I hate this much.

My recommendation? Go with any topcoat in the entire world other than this one.

13 comments:

hmm that's crummy. My seche vite topcoat is my favourite, despite people saying it can cause birth defects, I am not inhaling the stuff all day long. It does get thick halfway through the bottle though. So I am looking for something else, or I will just buy a new one.

Ahh! That looks frustrating. I am currently not wearing NP because im having serious issues with it in general. I am seriously hating NP so much right now, I am getting angrier and angrier as I type this. hahaha. I sound crazy, I know. The other day I repainted my nails about 4 times because the finish kept getting messed up.

@Maria Yes it's so frustrating! Haha you don't sound crazy, the same thing was happening to me as I wrote this post. The more I talk about mega shine the angrier I get. I went through a phase like that with nail polish a few months ago and there was only one nail polish I could wear without it looking awful.

I completely disagree!I use this and ONLY THIS every time I paint my nails! It's the best topcoat I've ever used! & my nails hardly ever chip until about 5 days into it! Thats weird what's happening to your nails.I guess it's like most things:Some things work wonders for some & don't work for others at all! I guess your search continues-

@Estée Yeah it's strange! I know some people claim this is their holy grail topcoat and then I've heard from a few people that they have the same issues as me. I'm almost wondering if the manufacturer is just really inconsistent and they produce some really good bottles and some really bad bottles. It's just really strange because it happens every time I use the topcoat and I can't imagine why it does this for me but not for other people.

@Laura Haha yeah I was a little harsh but I figure everyone always raves about this and it's strange because the makeupalley reviews are also really bad. I think people need to hear both sides of the story. I'm glad it works for you though. I wish it worked for me!

No definitely! Some people love it, some people hate it... most things in life go that way! To be fair I ALWAYS wait until my nails are dry before I use any top coat, so maybe that's why it works so well for me?

@Laura Yeah that's probably why it works for you. I've found it does work better when I use a fast drying nail polish, but I usually apply my topcoat when the polish is still damp, not completely wet but definitely not dry and I think that's where my issue is. I wouldn't have such a big problem with it but I feel like they're lying when they say it can be used on wet nails.

I use the Sally Hansen mega shine and for me it's the best I've ever used. In fact, I'm in the habit of using it as a bottom coat as well because it serves that purpose, too. I'm a HUGE opi fan and have over 40 bottles but I have to say that for me, the Sally Hansen topcoat is FAR better than either of the opi ones (normal & the rapid dry). I've never had any experience with it "shrinking" like yours so maybe it was a bad reaction to the type of nail polish you were using underneath? I don't know...haha...all I'm saying is, people may not want to discount it so quickly because there are people out there who have had AMAZING results with this product.

Since you used the Sally Hansen Complete Manicure polish, I'm not even sure you needed to add another top coat after it. I wonder if that could have been why you had problems with the additional top coat?

I have never had any problems with the Sally Hansen Mega Shine. It dries my nail polish quickly, makes it last much longer, and no problems. I don't understand why some people have problems and others don't. This one is the ONLY one that I use. I even take it to the salon with me, and have them use it instead of their topcoat! They are amazed!